Our Lady of Carmel

 

July 16: Our Lady of Mt Carmel and the brown scapular


When I was young, my mother gave me a brown scapular of Our Lady of Mt Carmel. I didn't know her full story. Today is her feast day so allow me to tell you what I have learned ...


The Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel serves to remind the faithful of our Blessed Mother’s promise of special protection and heavenly graces to all those who wear the brown scapular, a sign of salvation and a safeguard in danger. 

 

The significance of Mount Carmel

Mount Carmel is associated with Prophet Elijah's zeal for the Lord and tradition holds he lived on the mountain and that there was a spring associated with him there called the "Fountain of Elijah". 
In 1 Kings 18, Elijah confronts the prophets of Baal in a dramatic contest on Mount Carmel. Ahab, king of Israel, under the influence of his wife Jezebel, has led the people astray into worshipping Baal. 
Elijah challenges 450 prophets of Baal to a test: two altars were built, one to Baal and one to the Lord, each with a sacrificial bull, but no fire lit. Whichever God answers by fire is the true God. The prophets of Baal cry out, dance, and even cut themselves for hours, but nothing happens. Elijah, in a memorable bit of mockery, needles them—suggesting maybe their god is sleeping or on a journey. Then Elijah repairs the Lord's altar, drenches it with water three times so there can be no trick, and simply prays. Fire falls from heaven and consumes the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and even the water. The people fall on their faces declaring "The Lord, He is God." Elijah then has the prophets of Baal put to death at the Kishon brook nearby. Shortly after, still on or near Carmel, Elijah prays for rain to end a long drought, and a small cloud "like a man's hand" rises from the sea—ending the famine. 

Our Lady of Mount Carmel 

The feast Our Lady of Mount Carmel was assigned to 16 July, because on that date in 1251, according to Carmelite traditions, a scapular was given by the Blessed Virgin to a hermit St. Simon Stock, the Prior General of the Carmelite Order, as he knelt alone in a stone chapel in the town of Aylesford, England crying in desperation when the monastic order was in great peril of collapse.  

 

The Blessed Mother answered Simon’s prayers by giving him the Scapular, telling him: “Hoc erit tibi et cunctis Carmelitis privilegium, in hoc habitu moriens salvabitur” (This shall be the privilege for you and for all the Carmelites, that anyone dying in this habit shall be saved).  

 

On January 13, 1252, the order received a letter of protection from Pope Innocent IV, defending them from harassment.  This promise inspired St Simon Stock to repurpose the Carmelite mission to the service of the poor. 

 

The second promise Mary made is known as the Sabbatine Privilege – Saturday, because Our Lady promised scapular-wearers who perform certain additional acts in her honor prompt delivery from Purgatory, especially on the Saturday after death. We believe that God grants all graces through His Mother. 

 

Within a generation, the brown scapular spread from monasteries to every Catholic home in Europe. 

  

Mary showed herself to Bernadette at Lourdes for the last time on July 16; in her last vision at Fatima, she appeared as Our Lady of Mount Carmel. When we were enrolled in the scapular, the following prayer was said: “May Almighty God, Creator of Heaven and Earth, bless you whom he has been pleased to receive into the Confraternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. We beg her to crush the head of the ancient serpent in the hour of your death, and in the end obtain for you the palm and crown of your everlasting inheritance. Amen.”


The Blessed Mother appeared as Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Lourdes, France in 1858 and on her last apparition in Fatima, Portugal on Oct. 13, 1917.



A Prayer to Our Lady of Mount Carmel

O most beautiful Flower of Mount Carmel, fruitful vine, splendor of Heaven, Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in this my necessity. O Star of the Sea, help me and show me herein that you are my Mother.


O Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and earth, I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart, to succor me in this my necessity. There are none that can withstand your power. O show me herein that you are my Mother.


More about the scapular ...

The scapular gets its name from the Latin word scapulae, which means "shoulders."

In its original form, the scapular is a part of the outfit of monks composed of two large pieces of cloth, connected in the middle by narrower strips of cloth (much like an apron that covers both the front and the back of the wearer). The narrower strips provide an opening through which the monk places his head; the strips then sit on his shoulders, and the large pieces of cloth hang down in front and in back. 

Today, the term brown scapular is used most often to refer to a sacramental (a religious object) scapular that has essentially the same form as the monastic scapular but is composed of much smaller pieces of wool cloth (usually only an inch or two square) and thinner connecting strips. Each scapular is said to have a particular devotion or indulgence or even a "privilege" (or special power) attached to it

According to Pope John XXII, the Blessed Virgin gave him the following message in a vision related to those who wear the Brown Scapular: “I, the Mother of Grace, shall descend on the Saturday (Sabbath) after their death and whomsoever I shall find in Purgatory, I shall free, so that I may lead them to the holy mountain of life everlasting.”

Based on Church tradition, three conditions need to be fulfilled to obtain the benefits of this Privilege and the Scapular:

  1. Wear the Brown Scapular

  2. Observe chastity according to one’s state in life

  3. Pray the Rosary

In order to receive the spiritual blessings associated with the Scapular, it is necessary to be formally enrolled in the Brown Scapular by either a priest or a lay person who has been given this faculty.  Once enrolled, no other Scapular need be blessed before wearing.  The blessing and imposition are attached to the wearer for life.

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